Is the cost of making silage bales way over priced ?

Alibaba

Often wondered is the cost of making bales of silage over priced.

At €10 + just for making the bale and wrapping it.
I know you have to factor in tractors , machinery , labour and diesel but it still seems expensive.

Wonder how does this cost compare with England for example.

1chippy

Its a dear way of making feed but cost of the contractor is justified. Take a wage of 650 take home per week. reasonable wage associated with working for yourself. Allow for holiday pay, prsi and all the bells and whistles and they need to be charging out at e32 per hour. Thats before depreciation, fuel, repairs and the non payers. By the time its all in most lads are only doing it to justify buying a bigger tractor.

delaval

I only wrap light covers, too strong for cows 2-3 bales per acre get wagon for anything heavier as per bale is expensive. I drives baker man mad but I pay immediately. He told me he was going to charge by the mile instead!!!!

Juniorhurler

Its not the contractor that is driving up the price of it himself. It is the large companies two layers farther back. The oil companies, the plastics companies and the fertilizer companies.
Then throw in the criminal rates of government duties and tax associated with all of these inputs and that is where the costs go crazy. The contractors, as chippy said, are working for nothing.

Markcheese

Never thought bales were cheap , but always thought self propelled silage units were suicidally cheap... How those lads keep going with the price of fuel and kit I don't know ...,

grazeaway

well there ar a lot of opertaion involved lots of power hungry work with big machines. Mowing, tedding (if apppicable), chooper baling, transport to yard, wrapping and stacking. Then there as teh additonal costs of the plastic and the fertilzer. If done right you'll get good quality feed that is cheaper then buying in feed. Also you are less likely to damage the ground in wet weather which has a kncok effect to the grass. While hay is much cheaper it dosnt have the same feeding quality and is there is the waether factor too. Also baled silage can be very useful for grassland managment.

If we get a decent summer (fingers crossed) i'll be doing hay this year.

lakill Farm

€10 plus?
im giving €8.50(inc vat) for mow, bale and wrap. i supply wrap.
Cant justify putting in a slab (due to scale of farm).

Use to draw in with a self propelled outfit. Texaco lorry use to arrive every day and twice on a saturday. The jaguar was using 800litres in a day. JCB loader over a tank, such a pain as the browser always had to follow us around.

kowtow

delaval wrote: »

I only wrap light covers, too strong for cows 2-3 bales per acre get wagon for anything heavier as per bale is expensive. I drives baker man mad but I pay immediately. He told me he was going to charge by the mile instead!!!!

I was wondering how that approach - which seems the most productive - would go down with contractors. Presumably you need to call for bales little and often over a much longer time window, i.e. before and after the rush to the clamp? Do you mow yourself?

dzer2

I do my own mowing, tedding, baling, wrapping, drawing and stacking.Its fairly hectic last year asthe whole lot had to get done over 5 days. I am lucky enough as i have 2 budding tractor drivers of my own a retired uncle living nearby and a helpful neighbour. Last year I done 26 acres first cut Plastic was 720 euro diesel 400 euro. I had no wages as such but brought both men out for a meal and pints when done. The diesel bill was a bit high as I had to draw them one by one as the fields were not capable of taking a trailer. I had 1 repair at the end costing 140 euro for parts as I done the labour myself in the basking rain afterwards. I also had a cost for rolling one field which marked badly with the drawing of the bales. While I appreciate that not every one could do this it leaves a tidy sum of money that I dont have to give to contractors.

st1979

I use my own wagon often pay a guy to pull it with his tractor and i do the pit and milking. Its a 2 man system. I mow all grass first day and start to pick up next day and on long draw the following day. On a 3 mile trip each way I get about 18 acres first day and finish 2nd day (30 acre outfarm) and cover. 1 thing is I miss the extra labour to cover the pit.
Used to do it in wrap but would take 2 days at least getting them home. This way i cut out the baler charge and wrap and plastic cost.
When cutting at home any where from 30-40 acres a day.

loveta

delaval wrote: »

I only wrap light covers, too strong for cows 2-3 bales per acre get wagon for anything heavier as per bale is expensive. I drives baker man mad but I pay immediately. He told me he was going to charge by the mile instead!!!!

Would love to sent the guy down to you that makes my bales goes nuts with "only 6bales acre" has tounged about round the parish told him he does not know what quality feed is as he reckons any thing less than 10 bales an acre is a lite meadow he charges me by the hour now to mow the **** :eek:

delaval

loveta wrote: »

Would love to sent the guy down to you that makes my bales goes nuts with "only 6bales acre" has tounged about round the parish told him he does not know what quality feed is as he reckons any thing less than 10 bales an acre is a lite meadow he charges me by the hour now to mow the **** :eek:

My man can charge by the hour if he wants but I'm not going to suggest it to him.

He also rakes and brings in main crop with a wagon. We mow and push it up on the pit, same arrangement I give the driver a cheque as he leaves if he does 60 acres or 10 acres. We sit down and agree a price before the seaon starts and I pay €10 extra for wagon on a long draw.

Loads of big wagons around here and they are all canvassing for business which is great for us cutomers. A lot of farmers have moved from the big choppers.

bbam

lakill Farm wrote: »

€10 plus?
im giving €8.50(inc vat) for mow, bale and wrap. i supply wrap.
Cant justify putting in a slab (due to scale of farm).

Use to draw in with a self propelled outfit. Texaco lorry use to arrive every day and twice on a saturday. The jaguar was using 800litres in a day. JCB loader over a tank, such a pain as the browser always had to follow us around.

Same here. Last year I got €0.50 off they for a cheque before he left. We were both happy

delaval

I'm away now to yoke to the mower give it the once over change oil, grease etc.















You can be certain that it'll rain for a fortnight now!!!!!!!!!!!

AgriContractor

On this - I have developed an Agri Contractor Cost Estimator and it gives the costs for all types of baling in England.
It is based on the UK NAAC average rates and all the details are on our site - with plastic/without etc.

Regarding Ireland, I've taken information from our own surveys but I need much more input from farmers and contractors
because the prices can vary widely - depending on the region and machinery etc.

So if anyone has recently got a quote from a contractor or is providing agri contracting services, it would be great
if they could enter prices / costs into our system.
I will then average out the data which will give a better rate estimator.
I have not got every contract type in it yet - need prices for fencing etc.

Here is the page with the calculators and the form where you can provide your own costs experience.
http://www.agricontractor.com/agricontractor-rates-survey-ireland/

Any feedback, however critical, is welcome...